The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
VCSELs have been offered commercially since the mid-1990s. One of the largest applications for VCSELs has been in fiber optic communication, and they were initially offered in transistor outline (TO) packages, hermetically sealed. However, efforts have been made to make VCSELs more robust in environments that vary in temperature and/or humidity so that a wider variety of packages can be used. In broadening the application of VCSELs to consumer applications, there is a need in the art for packaging approaches that are both low cost and which also enable the easy integration of various electrical and optical elements with the VCSEL.